


At the Department of Magical Transportation

by FireOpal (Sandel)



Series: A Triptych of Possible Beginnings [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, F/M, Getting Together, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 07:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7351663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/FireOpal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>The whole thing is ridiculous.</p>
  <p>---</p>
  <p>Written for  MuggleMaybe's <span class="u">Happy & Gay Challenge</span> (where it got 2:nd place!) <i>and</i> Rumpelstiltskin's <span class="u">Companion Piece Challenge</span> over at hpfanfictalk.com, <i>and</i> for Sam's (Dojh167's) birthday! <3</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	At the Department of Magical Transportation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dojh167](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dojh167/gifts).



>   
>   
> Banner by TreacleTart at The Dark Arts forums.  
> \---
> 
> Happy Birthday, again, Sam!
> 
> This is the story that kept wanting to be written when I plotted out the last one. It’s not _exactly_ Percy/Oliver, but I hope you’ll like it anyway!
> 
> <3
> 
> /Kapa

The whole thing is ridiculous.

She steps out of the elevator on the sixth level of the Ministry, and the high heels of her shoes click-clack against the wooden floor of the corridor. She wills herself not to stumble. It’s not that she’s ever had any problem walking in heels – and these that she’s wearing today aren’t even very high – it’s just that falling over would be the perfect way to prove Healer Wheelock right, and she absolutely _refuses_ to. She’ll just be in and out at the Apparition Test Centre, and then she’ll Apparate home and forget that this ever happened.

A right turn takes her into the Department of Magical Transportation, and she looks around for some sort of reception. Then she sees a flash of red hair, and… Oh shit, is that Percy Weasley at the check-in desk? What the hell is _he_ doing here? Isn’t he senior undersecretary to the Minister or some such, or at the very least _severely_ over-qualified for a receptionist job?  She almost wants to turn and leave on the spot – turn and Apparate on the spot, really, ironically – but she wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. This morning she promised herself that she’d get through this day, no matter what, and if that includes a run in with an old and confusing childhood crush, then so be it.

She walks up to the desk. Her legs are not shaking. They’re _not_. As she walks Percy throws her a brief glance, his eyes blank, unrecognising. When she reaches the desk she hands him the form she’s filled out beforehand, and he looks at it with far more interest than he did her.

“Ah, Ms Wood,” he says, his tone professional. “Any relation to…”

He looks up again.

“ _Oliver?_ ”

Oh, _fuck_.

“It’s Audrey now, actually,” Audrey says, and she hates the way her voice wavers.

Percy goes beet red, and he quickly looks down again at the parchment she handed him.

“Yes, yes, I can see that,” he mutters, to her or to himself Audrey cannot tell.

She doesn’t know what to say to that, so she says nothing, and Percy doesn’t seem to know what to say either, at first. But there’s a protocol to follow, and following protocols is what Percy Weasley does best.

“So, I see that you’re here to apply for an Apparation licence, Ms Woo- wait, that can’t be right…?”

She clears her throat.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Well, it’s just, you… back at Hogwarts you managed to Apparate on your very first try; you’ve had your licence since the day you turned seventeen.”

Audrey can’t help feeling a little touched that he remembered that.

“Yeah, well…” she says. “The rules are different for people like me – trans people.”

“They are? Why?”

At first Audrey thinks she must have heard him wrong. Percy Weasley, not knowing every single rule of the Ministry department he works for? It’s almost inconceivable. He must not have been here for long.

“‘There have been incidents,’” she quotes bitterly.

Percy gives her a searching look.

“That’s what Healer Wheelock says, at least,” she goes on. She’s been worked up about this for _weeks_ , and now that she has an audience it all just comes surging out. “But I’m sure those ‘incidents’ were way back in the early days of magical trans care, when they’d pour all the Potions down your throat and throw all the Transfiguration spells at you at once, and just hope for the best. No wonder if some poor soul splinched themselves after such an overhaul. It’s a surprise they could even _walk_ , to be frank!”

As she falls quiet Audrey feels a bit silly about her outburst, but Percy doesn’t seem taken aback by it; he just looks thoughtful.

“The department clearly has to look into whether that law should be changed, then,” he says.

Audrey could kiss him right there.

“Yeah, the whole thing is a bit ridiculous,” she says, instead.

“Indeed. And yet, as long as the rule is there, we have to follow it. Here, does this look right?”

He hands her back the form she’d given him, plus another one that he’s filled out as they’ve talked. She runs her eyes over them both, nods, and gives them back to Percy again, who rolls them up and puts them into a tube that goes into a room labelled ‘Apparation Testing Chamber.’ With a _wooosh_ , they’re gone.

“You, er, can sit down in that sofa and wait now, if you want,” Percy adds, indicating a purple, plush-y monstrosity.

Audrey doesn’t want to stop talking to him, though, and there’s no one else in the room vying for his attention, so instead she says,

“Actually, if you don’t mind me asking, how come you’re doing, er, _this_ , instead of something, well… important?”

For a second Percy looks like he _does_ mind, but then he shrugs and says,

“Well, this was the only department willing to hire someone who insisted on applying for the job anonymously. I’m sure everyone else thought I was a former Death Eater or something…”

And then, before Audrey has time to ask anything about that odd statement, he adds,

“And I’m told the opportunities for advancement are good… Anyway, how about you? Are you still with Puddlemere?”

Audrey decides to let the subject change slide.

“For the time being, yes, but I’m looking around. They’re not giving me much play time.”

Returning the favour of the subject change, Percy doesn’t ask why, he just nods. Audrey summons her courage.

“I’ve actually had an offer to try out for the Harpies,” she adds, nonchalantly.

Percy lights up.

“Then you’ll play with my little sister!” he says.

“I know!” she exclaims, nonchalance gone out the window. Getting to play with Ginny Weasley is actually one of the _many_ things drawing Audrey towards the Holyhead Harpies. “It’s a shame that I missed her at Hogwarts, she’s a truly exceptional player!”

Percy beams at her, accepting the praise for his sister as if it had been for himself. Audrey smiles back, and for a second they just stand there, on opposite sides of the desk, gazing into each other’s eyes. Then…

“Ms Wood? We’re ready for you!” comes a voice from the doorway to the Testing Chamber.

Audrey has to grip the reception desk to steady herself.

“Are you nervous?” Percy asks, a small crease of worry appearing between his eyebrows.

Her abashed silence is answer enough.

“Don’t be,” he adds. “You’re a great Keeper; you have impeccable body control. _You’ve had your licence since you were seventeen._ You’ve got this!”

Once again Audrey feels like she could kiss him right on the spot, and this time…

“I could kiss you right now!” she blurts, before she can stop herself.

Audrey wouldn’t have thought it possible for Percy to blush any deeper than he had when he’d first used her old name, but now he proves her wrong.

“I, uhm, blu-fu?” he stammers out.

Then he takes a deep breath, adjusts his glasses, and looks her straight in the eye.

“Maybe not at work,” he says, surprisingly suave.

“Always the professional,” Audrey quips back, heart racing.

 _Does that mean what I think it means?_ she thinks.

“How about we meet up at the _Leaky_ at seven, and we can take things from there, instead?” he asks, still suave, but with a nervous timbre to his voice that Audrey finds _irresistibly_ charming.

She smiles widely at him, and…

“Ms Wood?”

The voice in the doorway is more insistent now, and when Audrey turns towards it she sees a very short witch with very triangular glasses looking disapprovingly at the two of them. Audrey quickly turns back to Percy again.

“Yes, _yes_ ,” she says. “But now I…”

“Yeah, go,” Percy interrupts her, shooing her towards the doorway. “And good luck!”

And so, with her legs feeling like jelly and her heart pounding in her chest, Audrey goes to take her Apparition Licensing Test for the second time in her life.

* * *

When she comes out of the Testing Chamber again, Percy looks up from some kind of form that he’s filling in. She gives him the thumbs up.

“Good job!” he says, once she reaches the desk again.

She beams at him as he hands her a new Apparation licence, ‘ _Ms Audrey Wood_ ’ shining on it in golden letters.

“Thanks!” she says. “And… see you tonight!”

She even adds a little wink, just to see Percy get flustered again. Then she turns on her heels, and with a quiet _pop_ she’s home. _Oh_ , it feels good to be allowed to Apparate again, even though she’ll always prefer flying.

She immediately throws herself on her unmade bed, and hides her mile-wide smile in her fluffiest pillow. She has a _date_ tonight, a date with _Percy Weasley_ , and all because of that ridiculous law!


End file.
